BB on a laptop

Doug Seymour · Post by **Doug Seymour** » 31 Oct 2002 6:22 pm

Guys....I'm thinking of trying BB on a laptop
(to be portable?) & then through an amp & playing along with it for nursing home gigs etc. Any advice or experiences you people have had? My BB seems to know most of the tunes I know!

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 31 Oct 2002 6:26 pm

Yup, I do that a lot. No problem. No special tricks. The sound will be as good as the sound card or software synth in your laptop.

Kenneth Kotsay · Post by **Kenneth Kotsay** » 1 Nov 2002 5:55 pm

I have a new Dell Laptop and BIAB Ver#11 installed. For about two months I have only been using the Dell to play back my BIAB music stuff. Last Saturday I finally plugged the Dell into my Nashville 400 and HOLY COW........... what a sound came out, I thought I had a professional band in my bedroom.

I also discovered that my Nash 400 is not breaking up when I play my ZUM through it. I cleaned the Molenx connectors inside the 400 and I would still get distortion and break up while playing the ZUM. When I played the DELL & BIAB thru the Nash 400 the sound that came out could make a deaf person hear again. What I discovered later was that the Emmons cable running from the ZUM to the volumn pedal was no good. Changed the cable and now everything is running louder than hell.

KEN

Doug Seymour · Post by **Doug Seymour** » 1 Nov 2002 7:50 pm

How's the soundcard in your Dell? Does it reproduce the sounds realistically?? BB is as
good as the soundcard, I think. Did you ask for anything special or is an off the shelf card? Glad you found the bad cord! Do make a difference...right?!! I had a quite a session w/mine tonight. I live in an apt bldg, so can't blow the windows out. I need to take it down to the recroom & give it a workout! Mostly for fun.....it's not better than playing with live buddies!, but any old port in a storm! Uncle Doug

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 1 Nov 2002 10:00 pm

Yeah, but try getting your buddies to play 2-5-1 or 1-6-2-5 turnarounds for an hour and a half while you work out ideas...

Doug Seymour · Post by **Doug Seymour** » 2 Nov 2002 3:51 pm

I ordered a sound card today that will connect to the USB port of the laptop and it's by Creative Labs, so we'll see how that reproduces the midi instruments? My guru son tells me it might even be overkill for what I'm hoping to do!

Mark Ardito · Post by **Mark Ardito** » 3 Nov 2002 7:44 am

Doug and All BB experts,

OK, I have a question. I don't know much about BB, in fact the first time I heard about it was on this forum. So do you program songs on BB or do they just have a huge catalog? How steep is the learning curve? How much $? I am kind of curiuos into this product.

Do all of you guys like it? Does it sound like stupid MIDI files on peoples website? I can't stand that stuff.

Thanks,
Mark

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Sho~Bud Pro I, Fender D-8 (C6&E13) http://www.darkmagneto.com

George Wixon · Post by **George Wixon** » 3 Nov 2002 8:49 am

Mark,
BB (Band In A Box) is easy to use. You can create your own backup tracks to any song you choose just by entering in the chords for the song and choosing a style that you want it played in. There are numerous features as well. I just found out how to slow down an ending that I needed without affecting the rest of the tempo and found that it can be done at any measure I wanted when ever I wanted. I use this program extensively for practice. Its not expensive at all and sounds better than any midi file you get from the net. I would sugesst using the VSC software as well as it makes a difference in the sound. The VSC software is included with BB as well as Slowblast which is great for slowing down song portions without changing the pitch.
You may want ot goto the PG Music site and check out some of the samples they have from the different styles just to get an idea of the sounds. Most of the new sound cards today have a good quality sound output so as long as what you feed the thing is quality, then you get quality back.
George<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by George Wixon on 03 November 2002 at 08:50 AM.]</p></FONT>

Mark Ardito · Post by **Mark Ardito** » 3 Nov 2002 2:47 pm

George,

Thanks, for the information. I went to PG's website and was looking at their samples and screen shots. Let me ask these questions. If I do decide to purchase, should I get the pro version or the megapack version? Also, do you guys have your computer setup close to your steel and you just use the speakers on your PC to playback the BB or do you have a different setup.

Thanks,
Mark

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Sho~Bud Pro I, Fender D-8 (C6&E13) http://www.darkmagneto.com

George Wixon · Post by **George Wixon** » 3 Nov 2002 3:29 pm

Hi Mark,
My computer is in the same room as my steel so I can run the BB files through the powered speakers for the computer. On the same note I also record using Powertracks Pro so I also run the extra output from the sound card along with the steel's preamp output into a mixer and use headphones when recording. Kind of nice as you can record any time you want and not hear anything coming from the amp or the computer while in the room.
I originally purchased version 10 of BB and then upgraded to version 11 and just recently purchased styles #26 as I play a lot of traditional country. The mega pak has every style they offer as far as I know and for the price it's a good offer. I guess it all depends on what you plan on playing.
Hope this helps you out.
George

Joel Glassman · Post by **Joel Glassman** » 4 Nov 2002 11:12 am

A good resource for Band in a Box info: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Band-in-a-Box/?yguid=2186557

Henry Matthews · Post by **Henry Matthews** » 5 Nov 2002 9:22 pm

Just a thought for midi files on the net. I have an Edirol Sound canva SC-88 that I use in conjuction with BIAB and can download the midi files, takeout the lead instruments and have a sound track that sounds like it was done in a studio with live musicians (almost). I downloaded Blue from Don Carrols web sight and took out that funky guitar and put steel in it and it sounds great. Just like a studio job but some of the midi files sound better than others. Don Carrols are the best. After you get proficiant with BIAB you might try that.
Henry